Yeah, its illegal, but cops won't arrest a person for it. As far as I know you can't be arrested for it or jailed. Only deported. And its not that easy to deport someone apparently.
I am VERY passionate on this subject so I will do my best to curb my over responsiveness. I personally feel that illegal immigration is a very serious problem that crosses all racial boundaries and effects all countries world wide. I will state though that illegal immigrants assuredly "go to jail". The problem is that there is not even remotely close to the needed active enforcement of the issue. That's because illegals tend to keep a very low profile and therefore don't get caught frequently. The problem is one of assured political device. The problem with illegal immigration is not one of out and out right criminal misconduct on the part of the illegal immigrant, it is however one of extreme financial cost (despite total bullshit arguments put forth otherwise) and worse, a complete erosion of the legitimate community vote and culture. There is positively no "illegal immigrant" that would not be WELCOMED into the legitimate citizenry of my country if they CHOSE to do so legally via the respect and integrity that is required to do so. There is always two paths to any destination. The easy road and the hard road. Illegals just choose the easy road and as a result, they have become a plague.
well, the only way they go to jail here is if INS picks them up in a sweep. They do not go to jail for being illegal if a cop finds out.
You misunderstand me and I apologize for not being clearer. They definitely go to jail if they break the law (drunken & disorderly, vagrancy, theft, etc.) and they are deported as a result. In many states in the US if a person does not have ID on them when a cop stops them, that cop can and often does require verification of identity or the person can go to jail for vagrancy.
but everyone goes to jail for that. If a cop stops a legal drunk driver and everyone else in the car is illegal, the only person that goes to jail is the drunk driver.
Orleander That's two TOTALLY different things. Evading your taxes is illegal too, but a cop won't take you to jail for it. Cops have their jurisdiction with respect to what is legal and illegal. There is nothing new about that. The point is that the INS does a piss poor job of enforcing the laws that are within their jurisdiction. MOST, not all, but most cases of immigrants being "out of legal status" is a civil offense and therefore not punishable by jail time. Now, sneaking into the country in the first place, IS most certainly a federal misdemeanor, and therefore, more so punishable by law. However, it's not the cop's job to determine that, it's INS. It's screwed up and the thing that really sucks is that the Democrats want us to PAY FOR THE ILLEGALS. Now that, is down right WRONG. They want to tax my benefits so that every other low life without insurance can get government welfare insurance. (SAME thing!)
